23 years later: South King Fire to host 9/11 remembrance

Published 7:30 am Sunday, September 8, 2024

A remembrance on the 23rd anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City and the Pentagon will be held at 1 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024, at South King Fire Station 64, 3700 S. 320th St., Federal Way.

A memorial at Station 64 displays a 10-foot-long piece of steel from the World Trade Center; a stone from the Shankstown, Pennsylvania, the site of Flight 93’s crash; and a block of limestone from the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. The memorial was dedicated in 2014.

The memorial also includes a stalwart pear tree in tribute to the only tree that survived at Ground Zero in New York City.

Nearly 3,000 people — including 343 firefighters — died in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. On that date, members of the Islamic group al-Qaeda hijacked four passenger jets and crashed them into both World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and a field in Pennsylvania.

In 2011, South King Fire’sScott Mahlen and Sven Schievink drove 55 hours to New York to retrieve the steel beam, which was stored in a warehouse at JFK International Airport.

During the 2011 trip, the firefighters also picked up a rock from Shanksville, Pa., with help from the National Park Service. The cracks on the rock resulted from the impact of United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed into a field, killing all 44 people on board including the four hijackers.

One of the passengers aboard that flight was Todd Beamer, who helped lead a revolt against the hijackers with the battle cry, “Let’s roll.” Beamer is the namesake for Todd Beamer High School, which opened in Federal Way in 2003.